Robot-assisted therapies (RAT) have shown promise as potential assessment and therapeutic tools as research has shown that children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) engage more readily with robots rather than humans, because robots are simple and predictable.

However, current social robots are simply remote-controlled by the therapists and like standard therapies, still require a lot of time, energy and human resources.

The DREAM Project aims to develop an autonomous robot that minimises the therapist’s intervention so they can focus more on the child and improve the outcome of the therapy. The DREAM robot will also function as a diagnostic tool by collecting clinical data during therapy.

The main task of the University of Portsmouth research group is to capture and analyse sensory data from the children – motion gestures, gaze, facial expressions, sound and voice – and make the robot understand what the child is doing so then they can have a better interaction.

The team has substantial experience in multi-sensory data fusion, especially sensing and analytics for multi-camera systems. They have developed a multi-camera smart environment, consisting of a NAO robot, Microsoft Kinect® cameras and high resolution cameras that track and measure the child’s motions and facial expressions and interactions with the robot.

Children with ASD engage more readily with robots rather than humans, because robots are simple and predictable.

Honghai Liu, Professor of Intelligent Systems and Portsmouth research lead for DREAM, said: “DREAM is a project that will deliver the next generation RAT robot, and its core is its cognitive model which interprets sensory data (body movement and emotion appearance cues), uses these perceptions to assess the child’s behaviour by learning to map them to therapist-specific behavioural classes, and then learns to map these child behaviours to appropriate robot actions as specified by the therapists.

“The multi-sensory data that we are capturing will be used to provide quantitative support for the diagnosis and care and treatment of ASD, replacing current labour intensive techniques involving paper and pencil, or manual video analysis.”

The next stage of the project will involve 40 children with ASD taking part in a study at Universitatea Babeş-Bolyai (UBB) in Romania, which involves half of them experimenting with robot-assisted therapy and the other half only with standard therapy.

DREAM is a project funded by the European Commission and developed by seven different partners: University of Skövde (Sweden), University of Portsmouth, Plymouth University, De Montfort University, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium), Babeş-Bolyai University (Romania) and Aldebaran Robotics, a French company that conceives, develops, manufactures, and commercialises humanoid robots.

News in brief

Domestic Desires
September 20

Deborah Sugg Ryan, Professor of Design History and Theory and Associate Dean (Research) in CCI, is giving a talk at the Royal Academy of Arts next month.

Professor Sugg Ryan will be speaking at 'Domestic Desires' which is part of the 'Home Sweet Home' series of events on Monday 16 October. The event takes a closer look at the impact mass media has had on domestic spaces.

Dr Ann Coats will lead a second walk to trace Portsea’s lost heritage on Saturday 23 September from 10.00am to 12.30pm. The walk starts at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard Gate on The Hard and finishes at St John the Evangelist RC Cathedral.

Following the Dockyard Wall, the route shall locate the vanished sites of Brickwood’s Brewery, the Daniel Street Chapel, St John’s Church and St John’s RC chapel. Three streets: Marlborough Row, Gloucester Street and Frederick Street were taken into the Dockyard in 1944. What do street names - Queen Street, Bonfire Corner, Prince George Street - tell us about Portsea’s history? Why was North Street a Ropewalk?

The walk is free and open to all. It is part of a University of Portsmouth community engagement project. Book your free ticket here.

Brunel Science Lecture
September 11

Professor Mike Tipton will deliver the Brunel Science Lecture at Portsmouth Grammar School on Wednesday 20 September. Professor Tipton has spent over 35 years researching and advising the military, industry and elite sports people in the areas of thermoregulation, environmental and occupational physiology and survival in the sea. His lecture commences at 7.30 pm in the Bristow Clavell Lecture Theatre, please click here to book your free ticket.

Smart cities research
September 04

Researchers from PBS have given their latest insights into research on smart cities as part of the PERCEIVE project, which aims to explore how much citizens feel European.

Smart cities projects have increased their popularity worldwide since their very first implementation. But how and to what extent have they expanded in the European Union? On which topics they have been focusing on?